MEN'S SWIMMING RANKS FOURTH MOST IMPROVED TEAM IN COUNTRY BY AVIDASPORTS.COM

WESTON, Mass.—Regis College men's swimming and diving was named the fourth most improved team in the country Thursday. Avidasports.com released its list of schools from all three divisions in three different categories, best overall, performance, and improvement.

Avidasports.com recognizes both men and women's teams in its rankings. The rankings utilize two metrics-improvement and performance. Athletes are determined by comparing improvements to the previous year's personal best, and averaged based on a percentile of each swim compared to all best collegiate times.

Teams are determined by taking the average by using the team's improvement and percentile rankings, the lower the average score the better. This was the men's team first acknowledgement by Avidasports.com.

Although head coach Mike Kotch is happy for his team, he is not shocked by the accomplishment. "I had been telling this team since day one that I believed in them and their ability to keep the swim program moving forward," said Kotch. "So I'm not surprised," he continued.

When Kotch took over in 2008 his goal for the team was to just establish a culture—one that emphasized effort and attitude. "I want these swimmers to feel proud about who they are," Kotch states.

His feeling, in part, on success is that it is important for a team to run itself. "By that I mean positive peer pressure, holding each other accountable, and helping each other out when times are tough in-and-out of the pool," he explains.

"My job is to try to continually convince them that they can take on more," Kotch says of his expectations for his men and women's program. "In the end, I hope that they simply believe in themselves as much as I believe in them."

When Kotch began coaching at Regis College he inherited two hard working returnees, and one incoming freshman on the men's team. Now up to 11 competitive swimmers on the men's team, Kotch is seeing success from both programs. Comprised of one senior, the team is experienced with two juniors, and four sophomores, but the four freshmen have shown a wealth of potential talent.

With increase in roster numbers, Kotch has not trained the teams training regiment. Kotch would say that the ability to focus has been an important part of the team's improvement. "We were at that point in the season (winter break) where we could really focus on swimming," Kotch said.

"With no classes being held we were able to train twice a day, and basically accelerate our swimming fitness and specific race development," he continued.

The Pride was in good company in the top five, while beating out several nationally competitive programs.

Regis College Swimming and Diving will return to the pool Saturday, Jan. 22 to swim against Colby-Sawyer. Both teams will be in competition Saturday, as the men and women's programs are coming off wins against Mount Saint Mary's College.

To see the list of full rankings (click here).